Google employees can continue to work from home until July 2021, becoming the first major tech company to extend its remote work agreement until next summer in response to the global coronavirus pandemic.
In an email to employees Monday morning, Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote: “To give employees the ability to plan ahead, we are expanding our global volunteer option from home to 30 June 2021 for roles that do not need to be in the office. “
The announcement extends the company’s previous agreement that the workers would return to the offices in January 2021.
According to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, the extension will affect “almost all” the 200,000 employees of parent company Alphabet, including contractors and full-time workers, at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View. , California, and the main offices in the United States, United Kingdom, India, Brazil and other places.
The company has already reopened 42 offices worldwide, reports CNN Business, including smaller offices in countries least affected by the pandemic, such as Australia, Greece and Thailand.
According to the Journal, Pichai made the decision after discussing the plans with an internal group of senior executives. He reportedly became convinced to extend the voluntary remote option after considering employees whose families are planning an uncertain academic year that may involve homeschooling, as well as tenants who need to determine their next 12-year leases. months.
“I know it has not been easy,” Pichai wrote in the staff memo, after the Journal reported on the impending extension. “I hope this offers the flexibility you need to balance work with caring for yourself and your loved ones for the next 12 months.”
Google was one of the first major companies to recommend employees work from home in early March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The company previously said that workers with special considerations, such as those who care for family members, will have more time to return when offices are reopened.
In May, Pichai told Wired that Google does not plan to go completely remote in the future. Given this stance, Mehul Patel, CEO of Contracted tech jobs site, says Google’s work-at-home extension is a “pretty predictable alternative.”
“I am not surprised by this since [Pichai] He previously made it clear that he had no intention of allowing employees to work from home permanently, “Patel tells CNBC Make It.” It also makes sense when considering how much hardware development Google does. We tend to immediately associate Google with online search, Google Maps, and other software products, but there’s a lot of hardware development going on there that’s very difficult to do in a remote environment, so I think it probably played a role in their decision to keep their physical offices. “
Meanwhile, Twitter made headlines in early May when it announced that employees could work from home “forever” if they wanted, even after the risk of the pandemic disappeared. Soon after, Facebook announced that eligible employees can apply for a permanent remote work agreement, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg estimates that half of the organization will continue to work remotely in the next five to 10 years.
Other major tech companies, such as Amazon and Apple, have asked workers to return in January 2021. But Patel says he is “absolutely” sure that the top tech companies will also push their return-to-office dates in 2021.
“Many companies tend to wait and see what these tech giants will do and then use those signals to inform their own strategies,” says Patel. “Whether they follow the example of Google or Facebook will really depend on the unique needs of their own businesses, since remote work will mean something different for each company. Some could be 100% remote, others could have distributed teams but maintain a central office , some might choose to have teams work from home, but only in the same time zone – there are countless ways to tackle it, but I strongly believe that remote work will continue to be a key business initiative for the foreseeable future. “
He says Google’s announcement of a return to office date, even if delayed, could be a severe blow to tech workers in hopes that wholly remote deals will become the norm, particularly in Silicon Valley.
“Google’s announcement is one of the first signs that if you go [the Bay Area]You could lose certain career opportunities, such as the chance to work at Google, “says Patel.” On the employer side, if you’re a Silicon Valley-based company and decide to embrace permanent remote work, you can use that as a point of sale to attract tech talent who has already decided to leave the Bay Area.
“Without a doubt,” says Patel, “embracing remote work gives employers access to a much broader pool of talent and, in turn, opens the door to great candidates living outside the Bay Area. to get jobs at companies that previously had geographic restrictions. “
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